E6400 overheating throttling

Ok. I set the high performance power option and I ran the game again. This time, I played until it throttled to 800Mhz. I quit the game and immediately ran Prime95 afterwards and it stayed at 800Mhz.

Hopefully I will be able to try Counterstrike 1.6 and Day of Defeat soon. My previous laptop, an Acer with T2060 and GMA950, was able to handle them with absolutely no problems.

On a side note: I tried turning off SpeedStep for testing and when I did, the CPU ran at 1.6Ghz instead of 2.53Ghz. When I turned it back on, the CPU ran at 2.53Ghz. CPU-Z, Everest and even the BIOS confirmed this.

 

I've done my own tests with Everest and can't replicate your high temperatures.

Light Load


Scrolling in Google Earth


Running wPrime 1024 and scrolling in Google Earth


Note the different fan speeds, but I couldn't get to 4800rpm (this is with BIOS A19). Also, the GMCH2 sensor seemed to come and go.

John

 

After reading Randall Cotton's (aka Tinkerdude's) 59 page pdf clearly outlining this issue, I was motivated to create a tool to try to give users running Windows a little more control of Clock Modulation and the ability to keep the multiplier at its maximum.

The program is called MaxCore2 and more information about it is available here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=4147775#post4147775

This simple utility is very efficient and should allow your Dell Laptops to run at full speed. It is designed for any computer that uses a Core 2 CPU.



Hopefully tinkerdude can give it a try and post some results.

 

John, I can most easily hit throttling now, simply by opening Farmville app in Facebook in Chrome. Simply that, nothing else, not actually doing anything, just sitting there doing nothing, I can watch the temps rise and the cpu speed dwindle away to nothing before the system locks up and I am forced to reboot. This is OFF the dock, although the ambient room temp was 32oC.

Although once I started RMClock and set it to Max performace the system is useable, also the MAX temps I see on the CPU and Chipset with RMClock running at Max Performance is ~75oC and ~85oC (+/- 5oC) so looks like the Aussie heat has finally kicked me over from just an annoying fan noise to throttling central. This is on BIOS T11 as I find it the most quietest on the dock in the office.

 

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/MaxCore2.zip

I added an option to the above program that should let users reduce the core voltage at full load. Most Core 2 CPUs I've used can operate 100% reliably with less core voltage at full load. More core voltage equals more heat, less core voltage equals less heat.

Before you decide to use this option, you need to run a suitable stress test like Prime95 to make sure that your Core 2 mobile CPU is capable of running reliably with less core voltage.

Start up Prime95 and then run MaxCore2 and click on the Start button. Once MaxCore2 is in the running mode, try the Reduce Maximum Voltage Option. Make sure that your computer is still 100% stable. Your maximum core temperature at full load will decrease if this is working correctly. Use CPU-Z or my other program, RealTemp, to monitor your VID voltage.

WARNING: Reducing core voltage can be risky but it can also be very rewarding when it comes to reduced heat. Happy testing.

 

Im at A19 and all is well, cool, fast, quite and no throttling. Thanks Dell!

 

Interesting, but I'm not going to replicate that since I have none of those three.

What happens if you enable 100% throttling in RMClock?

John

 

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/RealTempBeta.zip



I added a feature to RealTemp so you can monitor for Clock Modulation. This is a "feature" in Intel CPUs that quite a few Dell laptops seem to be using. When the bios starts using Clock Modulation to control the thermal performance of your laptop, CPU performance can drop like a rock without your knowledge.

RealTemp will help you keep an eye on this now. As soon as Clock Modulation is detected, the Thermal Status area will change and report how severe it is. 87.5% is mild modulation and 12.5% is severe modulation and a severe reduction in performance.

If you see signs of Clock Modulation then you can do a quick (or not so quick) XS Bench benchmark and you'll be able to see how much performance you have lost. This benchmark scales very linearly with CPU performance so when your benchmark score drops in half, that's a sign that your overall CPU performance has dropped in half.

At least now when users feel that their laptop is running like a slug, they'll be able to document it and will be able to see if Clock Modulation is part of the problem or not.

If any of these tools are useful to you then don't be afraid to open up the About... box in RealTemp and click on the Donate button. That feature is badly under used.

The Core i7 guys are having some success managing all of this throttling with a tool similar to the one I wrote above. If you are having throttling issues then why not try using that tool and post some feedback? Some of the new Dell Core i7 laptops are seeing frame rate increases while gaming of 50% to 100% when using that tool.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5620878&postcount=1151

 

I've just tried this utility. I would clarify that the clock modulation panel automatically appears if clock modulation happens (I turned it on using RMClock).

There is also a clock modulation option in the settings. Enabling this option forces clock modulation and there is no 100% setting (which means forcing no modulation).

John

 

I thought that was fairly clear. I even drew a nice bright red arrow showing how RealTemp will change as soon as Clock Modulation is detected.

Clock Modulation is never an issue on the Desktop CPUs so showing it as 100% isn't necessary. The Intel documentation shows either Clock Modulation on or off. If it is on then the percent values are listed as 12.5% to 87.5%. Neither 0% or 100% is defined in the docs.

I'm just hoping a simple tool will help users see what's really going on with their CPUs. It would have been nice if Dell included some sort of application so users could be aware of their computer's performance or lack of performance and why.